One of my favorite parts of other peoples blogs is reading their story. Hopefully this helps motivate you like others have motivated myself.

In the Beginning

We’ll start this story when money started meaning something. Until about 16 money was something your parents would give you for good grades and chores. It took a job, and a boring one at that for me to realize that $5.65 an hour wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. It’s amazing how 8 hours of work earning you $40 which is about what a nice dinner and a dvd was worth back in the later 90’s. I think it was one of those days when I was scanning product that I realized, ‘I sure as hell am going to go to college and make sure that $5.65 is not my future’. Actually, I take that back, it was right after my first raise (a whopping 15 cents) where I realized, ‘screw this’. I had always done rather well in school and that gave me hope that I could get into a college and change the world (like any college kid thinks).

The College Years

I went to college like any other kid, without knowing that college loans suck. It’s not the suckiness of the loan itself, more the suckiness of thinking ‘oh wow, this will only take me a year or two to pay off with my new fat salary’, and then that year or two turning into 10. I did one thing right though, I got my degree in engineering. That was mostly luck too, it really came down to me watching a lot of robot wars and mythbusters and thinking, ‘that looks pretty bloody fun’. And thank goodness too! Graduating in 2006 left just enough time for me to settle myself into one of the cushy jobs and get ready for a recession.

The Post College Years

Started dating about 8 months out of college (got married in 2012). The wifee is too good to me in all aspects. She may not have been too much of a saver to start, but she has come full circle (she even sacrifices shoes for savings.. at times). She also has a very good job, and that helps. DINKs are a great way to start a life together. You get to travel, see the world, spend some money, save a lot. That all helps.

The jobs kept getting better, and kept thinking that they should pay both of us more (who am I to complain). That is where this site comes into play. We have found ourselves in a unique opportunity where we earn enough to invest outside of retirement. I have spent tons of time looking at Retirement, Houses, Businesses and came to the realization that I would love to find people that share my passion (I think my wife would OD on finance if i pestered her 100% of the time and didn’t let her watch her reality television).

I am currently 29, so is the wife, and we’re just as excited about the next 29 years because of the awesome financial plan we’ve been able to set up. Talking money has no longer become a chore but something to be excited about.

Financial Basics

I’d love to keep an air of anonymity on here but a bit of information is required to allow people to understand where we’re at.

Both the wife and myself make an income in the low six figures realm. We’re young and are able to sock a lot of this away.

We don’t own a house but for reasons I won’t fully explain here, we like to buy rental homes and rent them out.

We still owe some on our student loans, but the interest rates are low so we have prioritized savings and investing over paying down debts. Debts are still bothersome though so usually about 25% of any excess cash will go to paying off debts with 75% going to other items.

The issue I’ve come to realize is that we both max out our 401k and have been doing so for a few years now. I could further invest in other retirement streams (IRA, etc.) but the 8.5 million dollars we’re projected to have at retirement will probably be enough for us and our future 27 children. This leads us into Rental Properties and business ventures.

We are both in high stress jobs, so we’re not sure that we will be working forever. But we’d like to lay down a foundation of passive income to get us through the ups and downs. Don’t kick a gift horse in the mouth and all, so while we’re able to fully devote our attention to our jobs we do work our collective butts off. But there has to be a silver lining, a light on the horizon per say.

That leads us to the present. This website and blog will follow our steps as we invest into multiple markets. Learn from our mistakes and help us along the way.

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About iheartinvesting

We at i<3Investing are NOT bankers, CPA's, lawyers (thank god), money managers or anything else of the sort. Please seek a professional for any Financial or investing related questions you may have. All the information on this site is our personal, oftentimes crazy, opinion. For more info, please check out my legal mumbo jumbo page or contact us.
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